simple monday - backgrounds as card designs

My initial thought when I started creating square formatted illustrations was that they'd be a good background or starting point for scrapbooking pages. Here is an example of how I used one of the Summer Backgrounds on a much smaller scale and as a focal point on a simple birthday card.

By leaving a square cutout behind the image the card has more dimensionality and the interesting shadow effect is an added benefit. I think you can tell in the bottom photo that I also added an extra frame on top of the image to give it more substance.